Breast cancer vaccine set to begin clinical trials

The Cleveland Clinic announced it's launching a first-of-its kind human trial testing a shot designed to prevent triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and deadly form of breast cancer, which currently doesn't respond to hormone or targeted drug therapies and can only be prevented with mastectomy.

While the trial will only include early-stage triple-negative breast cancer survivors who are at high risk for recurrence, the researchers hope to next take the vaccine to healthy people at high risk for the disease.

The presence of a certain protein, α-lactalbumin, usually accompanies the disease, even though it's only supposed to appear when a person is lactating.

The vaccine, then, will target that protein, prompting the immune system to stave off emerging breast tumours that express it. The shot will also include a drug that alerts the immune system to a-lactabalbumin so that it can halt emerging tumour growth.

The study is estimated to be completed in September 2022.

This vaccine strategy has the potential to be applied to other tumour types.

The research program focuses on developing vaccines that prevent diseases confront with age, like breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers. If successful, these vaccines have the potential to transform the way we control adult-onset cancers and enhance life expectancy in a manner similar to the impact that the childhood vaccination program has had.